Feb 24, 2006 9:32 am US/Central
Good Question: What About My NWA Ticket?
by Ben Tracy
(WCCO)
If Northwest Airlines pilots walk, our travel plans could be on the line. That's led many travelers to e-mail WCCO-TV asking, "What about my ticket?"
Northwest has said a strike isn't going to happen, but the fact is our travel plans may be the only thing up in the air.
"We don't know what's going to happen," said David Larson, a law professor at Hamline University. "Worst case scenario: They go out of business, and Northwest Airlines actually disappears. ... After that point, it gets a little dicier."
Will we still be able to fly?
If NWA is grounded and we've already bought tickets, other airlines flying the same route must let us fly standby for no more than $50 each way.
Here's the catch: "There's going to be this window period of high demand in March," Larson explained, "when everybody is going on spring break and heading south, and it's going to be particularly difficult to do that."
If travelers can't fly, can they get a refund?
"The refund question is interesting," Larson said. "If you made the payment by a credit card, there is this opportunity called 'chargebacks'."
The Fair Credit Billing Act allows us to dispute a charge for a product or service we don't receive.
If you charged your ticket to a credit card, you may be able to have the cost of the ticket credited to your credit card account. Write to your credit card issuer, being sure to state your account number. Enclose a photocopy of any evidence of the purchase, or indicate the price of the ticket(s) and the date they were charged. State that Northwest has ceased flying (in the event that they do cease flying) and that you will not receive the services that you charged to your account, and that you are requesting a credit pursuant to the Fair Credit Billing Act.
Under the law, this notice must be received by the credit card issuer no later than 60 days after the date that you received the first monthly statement that listed the charge for the flight. However, credit card companies sometimes waive this deadline for future transportation that is not provided.
"All that means, however, is that you can dispute the charge for 60 days," Larson warned. "There is no guarantee that you're going to get the credit of the charge."
What if we paid cash?
"Now you've got a problem, because your complaint is really relegated to just Northwest Airlines," Larson said.
NWA is in bankruptcy and would not necessarily have to give us a refund.
What's going to happen to our frequent flyer miles?
"Well, you're talking to somebody who has almost 400,000 frequent flyer miles in his account, so yeah, that's a sensitive subject for a lot of us," Larson said.
Our miles are never guaranteed.
"It's a benefit," Larson said. "It's a perk of the program."
It's possible one of the Northwest SkyTeam partners may honor our WorldPerks, but given the financial state of most airlines ...
"I don't think it's that likely," Larson said.
That's why we're always told not to bank our miles.
The bottom line: If you're booking tickets on Northwest Airlines, save all receipts and paperwork. You'll need them to dispute charges if the airline stops flying.
(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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